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Thursday, June 19, 2003Scientists are puzzled by a group of 120 people, mostly from the Toronto area, who tested positive for the SARS coronavirus but were not classified as probable or suspect cases. .....Dr. Frank Plummer, scientific director of the Winnipeg-based lab, yesterday said they are now working with local public health officials to track down and question this "very interesting group of people" about how they could have been exposed. The samples were taken from 2,100 patients since the first SARS outbreak in March at hospitals around the country, but mostly from the GTA. The samples were tested at the laboratory for the presence of the coronavirus. "Some of them probably are SARS, but no epidemiological link was made for some reason," said Plummer. A few of the patients were asymptomatic and some "clearly had illnesses not like SARS," he added. Plummer said he can't draw conclusions from the results because there's not enough information yet on the patients. But this may just be "the spectrum of the disease caused by the Toronto virus," he added, saying a similar phenomenon occurred in Hong Kong where a number of SARS patients didn't show the familiar symptoms like a fever and a cough. The article also reveals the case of a Texas man who returned from Toronto with SARS symptoms: A patient who claimed to have travelled to Toronto also appeared at a North Texas hospital last Thursday evening with SARS symptoms. The patient, who was ordered into quarantine and is in isolation under police guard in Dallas County, faces a hearing today, which will determine whether the individual's stay in the hospital will be extended. The individual is being called unco-operative by Dallas County officials, who say the patient has provided a name, residence, recent contacts and travel history they can't verify. There's more about the case here. But this may be why the U.S. has avoided the spread of the disease that occurred in Canada and Asia. Any suspected cases are kept quarantined. Even if it requires force. posted by Sydney on 6/19/2003 08:03:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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